A Young Rwandan in Canada

Eugène Kwibuka is a 22-year-old journalism student from Butare, Rwanda, who stayed in Montréal for six weeks covering the war crimes trial of Désiré Munyaneza. He's been chronicling his experiences in a blog. He says he loves the idea of Canada's changing seasons and finds the country beautiful, and he's amazed by being able to drink tap water, use wireless internet, ride on excellent roads, and have electricity that works all the time. But he notes that people aren't necessarily happy, even though they have big houses and lots of possessions: the stress and loneliness in western society were immediately apparent to him. He's surprised that even well-off people don't have live-in maids - something that's common and affordable in Rwanda - and that parents have to worry about babysitters for their children.

Can you imagine a person living alone in a huge house in which you find more than two television sets, more than two cars, more than two sitting rooms, and many other things?

And I was interested that he picked up on some colloquial expressions in English that say quite a lot about our society:

Sayings like "there is no free lunch in North America" and "feed the goat" show how capitalist a society is. The first means that people here work hard to eat and buy things... By the term "feed the goat," I learned that people here work for big companies that keep demanding big work and they are considered as goats to be fed anytime...I always wonder what would happen if companies stop employing people who are living in a house they haven't paid for yet? Doesn't it stop them from paying the mortgage? Would they be sent from the house?

Comments

[udge]

How true. Those are good, perceptive questions.

[beth]

Hi Udge! Thanks for commenting - it's great to see you here!

[Jean]

This is great stuff and really made me think. What a good journalist he's going to make. Chastening that it is so rare to read this perspective. It's especially striking to read such criticisms and pity for our way of life in comparison with theirs from someone not just from a poorer, developing country, but one we associate so strongly with absolute horrors, isn't it?